Khanakul II CD Block is bounded by Khanakul I CD Block in the north, Udaynarayanpur CD Block, in Howrah district, in the east, Amta II CD Block, in Howrah district, in the south, and Daspur II and Ghatal CD Blocks, in Paschim Medinipur district, in the west.

As per the 2011 Census of India, Khanakul II CD Block had a total population of 184,734, all of which were rural. There were 93,379 (51%) males and 90,755 (49%) females. Population below 6 years was 22,035. Scheduled Castes numbered 55,544 (30.07%) and Scheduled Tribes numbered 29 (0.02%).[8]

As per the 2001 census, Khanakul II block had a total population of 160,861, out of which 79,564 were males and 81,297 were females. Khanakul II block registered a population growth of 6.90 per cent during the 1991-2001 decade. Decadal growth for Hooghly district was 15.72 per cent.[9] Decadal growth in West Bengal was 17.84 per cent.[10]

As per the 2011 census the total number of literates in Khanakul II CD Block was 128,790 (79.16% of the population over 6 years) out of which males numbered 71,206 (86.12% of the male population over 6 years) and females numbered 57,584 (71.96% of the female population over 6 years). The gender disparity (the difference between female and male literacy rates) was 14.16%.[8]

As per the 2001 census, Khanakul II block had a total literacy of 49.27 per cent. While male literacy was 72.54 per cent, female literacy was 38.76 per cent.[11]

As per the 2001 census, Bengali is the mother tongue for 86.4 % of the population of the district followed by Hindi at 7.9%. Santali at 2.6% and Urdu at 2.0%, are the two other major languages spoken in the district. The population who reported Bengali as a mother tongue has decreased from 88.1% in 1961 to 86.4% in 2001 census whereas the population who reported Hindi as mother tongue has increased from 5.8% in 1961 to 7.9% in 2001 census.[12]

As per the 2011 census, majority of the population of the district belong to the Hindu community with a population share of 82.9% followed by Muslims at 15.8%. The percentage of the Hindu population of the district has followed a decreasing trend from 87.1% in 1961 to 82.9% in the latest census 2011. On the other hand, the percentage of Muslim population has increased from 12.7% in 1961 to 15.8% in 2011 census.[12]

In 2011 census Hindus numbered 155,566 and formed 84.21% of the population in Khanakul II CD Block. Muslims numbered 28,946 and formed 15.67% of the population. Others numbered 222 and formed 0.12% of the population.[13]

The Tebhaga movement launched in 1946, in 24 Parganas district, aimed at securing for the share-croppers a better position within the existing land relation structure. Although the subsequent Bargadari Act of 1950 recognised the rights of bargadars to a higher share of crops from the land that they tilled, it was not implemented fully. Large tracts, beyond the prescribed limit of land ceiling, remained with the rich landlords. From 1977 onwards major land reforms took place in West Bengal. Land in excess of land ceiling was acquired and distributed amongst the peasants.[18]Following land reforms land ownership pattern has undergone transformation. In 2013-14, persons engaged in agriculture in Khanakul II CD Block could be classified as follows: bargadars 20.93%, patta (document) holders 3.60%, small farmers (possessing land between 1 and 2 hectares) 0.48%, marginal farmers (possessing land up to 1 hectare) 33.36% and agricultural labourers 41.63%.[15]

In 2013-14, Khanakul II CD Block produced 1,102 tonnes of Aman paddy, the main winter crop from 823 hectares, 16,374 tonnes of Boro paddy (spring crop) from 6,129 hectares, 114 tonnes of Aus paddy (summer crop) from 52 hectares, 24 tonnes wheat from 9 hectares, 23,090 tonnes of jute from 1,207 hectares and 15,076 tonnes of potatoes from 2,000 hectares. It also produced pulses and oilseeds.[15]

In 2013-14, the total area irrigated in Khanakul II CD Block was 7,261 hectares, out of which 2,000 hectares were irrigated by canal water, 850 hectares by tank water, 2,960 hectares by river lift irrigation, 720 hectares by deep tube wells and 731 hectares by shallow tube wells.[15]

In Khanakul II CD Block, amongst the 52 inhabited villages, all villages have schools, 48 villages had more than 1 primary school, 24 villages had at least 1 primary and 1 middle school and 18 villages had at least 1 middle and 1 secondary school.[16]

In 2014, Khanakul II CD Block had 1 block primary health centre, 3 primary health centre and 1 private nursing home with total 40 beds and 5 doctors (excluding private bodies). It had 28 family welfare subcentres. 1,412 patients were treated indoor and 316,145 patients were treated outdoor in the hospitals, health centres and subcentres of the CD Block.[15]

Khanakul II CD Block is one of the areas of Hooghly district where ground water is affected by moderate level of arsenic contamination. The WHO guideline for arsenic in drinking water is 10 mg/ litre, and the Indian Standard value is 50 mg/ litre. In Hooghly district, 16 blocks have arsenic levels above WHO guidelines and 11 blocks above Indian standard value. The maximum concentration in Khanakul II CD Block is 137 mg/litre.[19]

1.
Geographic coordinate system
–
A geographic coordinate system is a coordinate system used in geography that enables every location on Earth to be specified by a set of numbers, letters or symbols. The coordinates are chosen such that one of the numbers represents a vertical position. A common choice of coordinates is latitude, longitude and elevation, to specify a location on a two-dimensional map requires a map projection. The invention of a coordinate system is generally credited to Eratosthenes of Cyrene. Ptolemy credited him with the adoption of longitude and latitude. Ptolemys 2nd-century Geography used the prime meridian but measured latitude from the equator instead. Mathematical cartography resumed in Europe following Maximus Planudes recovery of Ptolemys text a little before 1300, in 1884, the United States hosted the International Meridian Conference, attended by representatives from twenty-five nations. Twenty-two of them agreed to adopt the longitude of the Royal Observatory in Greenwich, the Dominican Republic voted against the motion, while France and Brazil abstained. France adopted Greenwich Mean Time in place of local determinations by the Paris Observatory in 1911, the latitude of a point on Earths surface is the angle between the equatorial plane and the straight line that passes through that point and through the center of the Earth. Lines joining points of the same latitude trace circles on the surface of Earth called parallels, as they are parallel to the equator, the north pole is 90° N, the south pole is 90° S. The 0° parallel of latitude is designated the equator, the plane of all geographic coordinate systems. The equator divides the globe into Northern and Southern Hemispheres, the longitude of a point on Earths surface is the angle east or west of a reference meridian to another meridian that passes through that point. All meridians are halves of great ellipses, which converge at the north and south poles, the prime meridian determines the proper Eastern and Western Hemispheres, although maps often divide these hemispheres further west in order to keep the Old World on a single side. The antipodal meridian of Greenwich is both 180°W and 180°E, the combination of these two components specifies the position of any location on the surface of Earth, without consideration of altitude or depth. The grid formed by lines of latitude and longitude is known as a graticule, the origin/zero point of this system is located in the Gulf of Guinea about 625 km south of Tema, Ghana. To completely specify a location of a feature on, in, or above Earth. Earth is not a sphere, but a shape approximating a biaxial ellipsoid. It is nearly spherical, but has an equatorial bulge making the radius at the equator about 0. 3% larger than the radius measured through the poles, the shorter axis approximately coincides with the axis of rotation

2.
India
–
India, officially the Republic of India, is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by area, the second-most populous country, and it is bounded by the Indian Ocean on the south, the Arabian Sea on the southwest, and the Bay of Bengal on the southeast. It shares land borders with Pakistan to the west, China, Nepal, and Bhutan to the northeast, in the Indian Ocean, India is in the vicinity of Sri Lanka and the Maldives. Indias Andaman and Nicobar Islands share a border with Thailand. The Indian subcontinent was home to the urban Indus Valley Civilisation of the 3rd millennium BCE, in the following millennium, the oldest scriptures associated with Hinduism began to be composed. Social stratification, based on caste, emerged in the first millennium BCE, early political consolidations took place under the Maurya and Gupta empires, the later peninsular Middle Kingdoms influenced cultures as far as southeast Asia. In the medieval era, Judaism, Zoroastrianism, Christianity, and Islam arrived, much of the north fell to the Delhi sultanate, the south was united under the Vijayanagara Empire. The economy expanded in the 17th century in the Mughal empire, in the mid-18th century, the subcontinent came under British East India Company rule, and in the mid-19th under British crown rule. A nationalist movement emerged in the late 19th century, which later, under Mahatma Gandhi, was noted for nonviolent resistance, in 2015, the Indian economy was the worlds seventh largest by nominal GDP and third largest by purchasing power parity. Following market-based economic reforms in 1991, India became one of the major economies and is considered a newly industrialised country. However, it continues to face the challenges of poverty, corruption, malnutrition, a nuclear weapons state and regional power, it has the third largest standing army in the world and ranks sixth in military expenditure among nations. India is a constitutional republic governed under a parliamentary system. It is a pluralistic, multilingual and multi-ethnic society and is home to a diversity of wildlife in a variety of protected habitats. The name India is derived from Indus, which originates from the Old Persian word Hindu, the latter term stems from the Sanskrit word Sindhu, which was the historical local appellation for the Indus River. The ancient Greeks referred to the Indians as Indoi, which translates as The people of the Indus, the geographical term Bharat, which is recognised by the Constitution of India as an official name for the country, is used by many Indian languages in its variations. Scholars believe it to be named after the Vedic tribe of Bharatas in the second millennium B. C. E and it is also traditionally associated with the rule of the legendary emperor Bharata. Gaṇarājya is the Sanskrit/Hindi term for republic dating back to the ancient times, hindustan is a Persian name for India dating back to the 3rd century B. C. E. It was introduced into India by the Mughals and widely used since then and its meaning varied, referring to a region that encompassed northern India and Pakistan or India in its entirety

3.
States and union territories of India
–
India is a federal union comprising twenty-nine states and seven union territories. The states and union territories are further subdivided into districts and further into smaller administrative divisions, the Constitution of India distributes the sovereign executive and legislative powers exercisable with respect to the territory of any State between the Union and that State. The Indian subcontinent has been ruled by different ethnic groups throughout its history. Between 1947 and 1950, the territories of the states were politically integrated into the Indian Union. The new Constitution of India, which came into force on 26 January 1950, the new republic was also declared to be a Union of States. The nine Part A states were Assam, Bihar, Bombay, Madhya Pradesh, Madras, Orissa, Punjab, Uttar Pradesh, and West Bengal. The eight Part B states were former princely states or groups of states, governed by a rajpramukh, who was usually the ruler of a constituent state. The rajpramukh was appointed by the President of India, the Part B states were Hyderabad, Jammu and Kashmir, Madhya Bharat, Mysore, Patiala and East Punjab States Union, Rajasthan, Saurashtra, and Travancore-Cochin. The ten Part C states included both the former chief commissioners provinces and some states, and each was governed by a chief commissioner appointed by the President of India. The Part C states were Ajmer, Bhopal, Bilaspur, Coorg, Delhi, Himachal Pradesh, Cutch, Manipur, Tripura, the only Part D state was the Andaman and Nicobar Islands, which were administered by a lieutenant governor appointed by the central government. The Union Territory of Puducherry was created in 1954 comprising the previous French enclaves of Pondichéry, Karaikal, Yanam, Andhra State was created on 1 October 1953 from the Telugu-speaking northern districts of Madras State. The States Reorganisation Act of 1956 reorganised the states based on linguistic lines resulting in the creation of the new states, as a result of this act, Madras State retained its name with Kanyakumari district added to from Travancore-Cochin. Andhra Pradesh was created with the merger of Andhra State with the Telugu-speaking districts of Hyderabad State in 1956, kerala was created with the merger of Malabar district and the Kasaragod taluk of South Canara districts of Madras State with Travancore-Cochin. The Laccadive Islands which were divided between South Canara and Malabar districts of Madras State were united and organised into the territory of Lakshadweep. Bombay State was enlarged by the addition of Saurashtra State and Kutch State, Rajasthan and Punjab gained territories from Ajmer and Patiala and East Punjab States Union respectively and certain territories of Bihar was transferred to West Bengal. Bombay State was split into the states of Gujarat and Maharashtra on 1 May 1960 by the Bombay Reorganisation Act. Nagaland was formed on 1 December 1963, the Punjab Reorganisation Act of 1966 resulted in the creation of Haryana on 1 November and the transfer of the northern districts of Punjab to Himachal Pradesh. The act also designated Chandigarh as a territory and the shared capital of Punjab

4.
West Bengal
–
West Bengal is an Indian state, located in East India on the Bay of Bengal. It is Indias fourth-most populous state, with over 91 million inhabitants and it has a total area of 34,267 sq mi, making it similar in size to Serbia. A part of the ethno-linguistic Bengal region, it borders Bangladesh in the east and Nepal and it also has borders five Indian states, Odisha, Jharkhand, Bihar, Sikkim and Assam. The state capital is Kolkata, the seventh-largest city in India, the geography of West Bengal includes the Darjeeling Himalayan hill region in its extreme north, the Ganges delta, the Rarh region and the coastal Sundarbans. The main ethnic group are the Bengali people, with Bengali Hindus forming the demographic majority, Ancient Bengal was the site of several major janapadas, including Vanga, Radha, Pundra and Suhma. In the 2nd century BC, the region was conquered by the emperor Ashoka, in the 4th century AD, it was absorbed into the Gupta Empire. From the 13th century onward, the region was ruled by sultans, powerful Hindu states and Baro-Bhuyan landlords. The British East India Company cemented their hold on the following the Battle of Plassey in 1757. Between 1977 and 2011, the state was administered by the worlds longest elected Communist government, a major agricultural producer, West Bengal is the sixth-largest contributor to Indias net domestic product. It is noted for its activities and the presence of cultural and educational institutions. The states cultural heritage, besides varied folk traditions, ranges from stalwarts in literature including Nobel-laureate Rabindranath Tagore to scores of musicians, film-makers and artists. West Bengal is also distinct from most other Indian states in its appreciation and practice of playing football besides cricket. The origin of the name Bengal is unknown, one theory suggests that the word derives from Bang, a Dravidian tribe that settled the region around 1000 BC. The word might have derived from the ancient kingdom of Vanga. Although some early Sanskrit literature mentions the name, the early history is obscure. At the end of British Rule over the Indian subcontinent, the Bengal region was partitioned in 1947 along religious lines into east and west, the east came to be known as East Bengal and the west came to known as West Bengal, which continued as an Indian state. In 2011, the Government of West Bengal proposed a change in the name of the state to Poschimbongo. This is the name of the state, literally meaning western Bengal in the native Bengali language

5.
Hooghly district
–
Hooghly district is one of the districts of the state of West Bengal in India. It can alternatively be spelt Hoogli or Hugli, the district is named after the Hooghly River. The headquarters of the district are at Hooghly-Chinsura, There are four subdivisions, Chinsura Sadar, Serampore, Chandannagar, and Arambag. The district of Hooghly derived its name from the town of Hooghly on the west bank of the Hooghly River about 40 km north of Kolkata and this town was a river port in the fifteenth century. The district has thousands of years of heritage in the form of the great Bengali kingdom of Bhurshut. The first European to reach this area was the Portuguese sailor Vasco-Da-Gama, in 1536 Portuguese traders obtained a permit from Sultan Mahmud Shah to trade in this area. In those days the Hooghly River was the route for transportation. Within a few decades the town of Hooghly turned into a commercial centre. Later in 1579-80 Emperor Akbar gave permission to a Portuguese captain Pedro Tavares to establish a city anywhere in the Bengal province and they chose Hooghly, and it became the first European settlement in Bengal. In 1599 the Portuguese traders built a convent and a church in Bandel and this is the first Christian church in Bengal known as ‘Bandel Church’ today. The Portuguese traders started misusing their powers and they started slave trading, robbery and converting natives into Christians by pressure. At one of point they stopped paying taxes to the Mughal Empire. As a result, Emperor Shah Jahan ordered the then-ruler of Bengal province, Qasim Khan Juvayni and this eventually led to a war in which the Portuguese were defeated comprehensively. Among other European powers that came to Hooghly were the Dutch, the Danish, the British, the French, the Belgians, Dutch traders centred their activities in the town Chuchura which is south of Hooghly. Chandannagar became the base of the French and the city remained under their control from 1816 to 1950, similarly, the Danish establishment in settlement in Serampore. All these towns are on the west bank of the Hooghly River, among these European countries, the British ultimately became most powerful. Initially the British were based in and around the city of Hooghly like traders from other countries, in 1690 Job Charnock decided to shift the British trading centre from Hooghly-Chinsura to Calcutta. The reason behind this decision was the safe location of Calcutta

6.
Representative democracy
–
Representative democracy is a type of democracy founded on the principle of elected officials representing a group of people, as opposed to direct democracy. Representative democracy is often presented as the most efficient form of democracy possible in mass societies and it arguably allows for efficient ruling by a sufficiently small number of people on behalf of the larger number. Government efficiency can be judged based on metric of cost effectiveness, representatives voting on behalf of the people allows for a monetary benefit as there is lessened use of polling stations, vote counters, etc. The government is responsible for paying for the wages of the representatives. This system of governance is also time efficient as decisions can be made by a select few and it is a system in which people elect their lawmakers, who are then held accountable to them for their activity within government. It has been described by political theorists including Robert A Dahl, Gregory Houston. In it the power is in the hands of the representatives who are elected by the people in elections. Representatives are elected by the public, as in elections for the national legislature. Elected representatives may hold the power to other representatives, presidents, or other officers of the government or of the legislature. The constitution may also provide for some deliberative democracy or direct popular measures, however, these are not always binding and usually require some legislative action—legal power usually remains firmly with representatives. Their wishes ought to have great weight with him, their opinion, high respect, their business, unremitted attention. It is his duty to sacrifice his repose, his pleasures, his satisfactions, to theirs, and above all, ever, and in all cases, to prefer their interest to his own. But his unbiassed opinion, his judgment, his enlightened conscience, he ought not to sacrifice to you, to any man. These he does not derive from your pleasure, no, nor from the law and they are a trust from Providence, for the abuse of which he is deeply answerable. Your representative owes you, not his only, but his judgment. The Roman Republic was the first government in the world to have a representative government. In Britain, Simon de Montfort is remembered as one of the fathers of representative government for holding two famous parliaments, the first, in 1258, stripped the King of unlimited authority and the second, in 1265, included ordinary citizens from the towns. Later, in the 17th century, the Parliament of England pioneered some of the ideas and systems of liberal democracy culminating in the Glorious Revolution, the American Revolution led to the creation of a new Constitution of the United States in 1787

7.
Bengali language
–
Bengali, also known by its endonym Bangla, is an Indo-Aryan language spoken in South Asia. With over 210 million speakers, Bengali is the seventh most spoken language in the world. Dominant in the last group was Persian, which was also the source of some grammatical forms, more recent studies suggest that the use of native and foreign words has been increasing, mainly because of the preference of Bengali speakers for the colloquial style. Today, Bengali is the language spoken in Bangladesh and the second most spoken language in India. Both the national anthems of Bangladesh and India were composed in Bengali, in 1952, the Bengali Language Movement successfully pushed for the languages official status in the Dominion of Pakistan. In 1999, UNESCO recognized 21 February as International Mother Language Day in recognition of the movement in East Pakistan. Language is an important element of Bengali identity and binds together a diverse region. Sanskrit was spoken in Bengal since the first millennium BCE, during the Gupta Empire, Bengal was a hub of Sanskrit literature. The Middle Indo-Aryan dialects were spoken in Bengal in the first millennium when the region was a part of the Magadha Realm and these dialects were called Magadhi Prakrit. They eventually evolved into Ardha Magadhi, Ardha Magadhi began to give way to what are called Apabhraṃśa languages at the end of the first millennium. Along with other Eastern Indo-Aryan languages, Bengali evolved circa 1000–1200 AD from Sanskrit, for example, Ardhamagadhi is believed to have evolved into Abahatta around the 6th century, which competed with the ancestor of Bengali for some time. Proto-Bengali was the language of the Pala Empire and the Sena dynasty, during the medieval period, Middle Bengali was characterized by the elision of word-final অ ô, the spread of compound verbs and Arabic and Persian influences. Bengali was a court language of the Sultanate of Bengal. Muslim rulers promoted the development of Bengali as part of efforts to Islamize. Bengali became the most spoken language in the Sultanate. This period saw borrowing of Perso-Arabic terms into Bengali vocabulary, major texts of Middle Bengali include Chandidas Shreekrishna Kirtana. The modern literary form of Bengali was developed during the 19th and early 20th centuries based on the dialect spoken in the Nadia region, a west-central Bengali dialect. Bengali presents a case of diglossia, with the literary

8.
Postal Index Number
–
A Postal Index Number or PIN or Pincode is a code in the post office numbering or post code system used by India Post, the Indian postal administration. The code is six digits long, the PIN Code system was introduced on 15 August 1972 by Shriram Bhikaji Velankar, an additional secretary in the Union Ministry of Communications. The system was introduced to simplify the manual sorting and delivery of mail by eliminating confusion over incorrect addresses, similar place names, there are nine PIN zones in India, including eight regional zones and one functional zone. The first digit of the PIN code indicates the region, the second digit indicates the sub-region, and the third digit indicates the sorting district within the region. The final three digits are assigned to individual post offices, a state may have one or more sorting districts depending on the volumes of mail handled. The fourth digit represents the route on which a Delivery office is located in the sorting district and this is 0 for offices in the core area of the sorting district. The last two represent the delivery office within the sorting district starting from 01 which would be the GPO or HO. The numbering of the office is done chronologically with higher numbers assigned to newer delivery offices. If the volume of mails handled at an office is too large, a new delivery office is created. Thus two delivery offices situated next to each other only have the first four digits in common. Each PIN code is mapped to exactly one delivery post office which receives all the mail to be delivered to one or more lower offices within its jurisdiction, all of which share the same code. The delivery office can either be a General Post Office, a Head Office or Sub Office which are located in urban areas. The post from the office is sorted and routed to other delivery offices for a different PIN or to one of the relevant sub offices or branch offices for the same PIN. Branch offices are located in areas and have limited postal services

9.
Subscriber trunk dialling
–
Subscriber trunk dialling is a telephone system allowing subscribers to dial trunk calls without operator assistance. The term was introduced when it first became possible for long-distance calls to be dialled directly, the term subscriber trunk dialling is used in the United Kingdom, the Republic of Ireland, Australia, India and South East Asia. The corresponding term in the North American Numbering Plan, e. g. in the United States, the term was extended when, on 8 March 1963, subscribers in London were able to directly dial Paris using international direct dialling. The introduction in the UK of subscriber dialling of long distance calls removed the distinction that had existed between trunk and toll calls and this term however, is still widely prevalent in India to describe any national call made outside ones local unit. A subscriber is someone who subscribes to, i. e. rents, a telephone line, now that all calls may be dialled direct, the term has fallen into disuse. Later it became possible to dial numbers on the exchange, calls to other exchanges were possible. When subscribers in one area became able to dial non-local subscribers, in the UK, STD started before 5 December 1958 when the Queen, who was in Bristol, publicized it by dialling Edinburgh – the farthest distance a call could be directly dialled. The STD system was completed in 1979, though most of the country was covered well before then. The system required that a new STD code, which could be dialled by subscribers, be allocated to each area, archive news article from the BBC on the introduction of Subscriber Trunk Dialing BBC video of first call taking place

10.
Vehicle registration plate
–
A vehicle registration plate, also known as a number plate or a license plate, is metal or plastic plate attached to a motor vehicle or trailer for official identification purposes. The registration identifier is a numeric or alphanumeric ID that uniquely identifies the owner within the issuing regions database. The first two letters indicate the state to which the vehicle is registered, the next two digit numbers are the sequential number of a district. Due to heavy volume of vehicle registration, the numbers were given to the RTO offices of registration as well, the third part indicates the year of registration of the vehicle and is a 4 digit number unique to each plate. In some countries, the identifier is unique within the entire country, whether the identifier is associated with a vehicle or a person also varies by issuing agency. In the vast majority of jurisdictions, the government holds a monopoly on the manufacturing of vehicle registration plates for that jurisdiction. Thus, it is illegal for private citizens to make and affix their own plates. Alternately, the government will merely assign plate numbers, and it is the owners responsibility to find an approved private supplier to make a plate with that number. In some jurisdictions, plates will be assigned to that particular vehicle for its lifetime. If the vehicle is destroyed or exported to a different country. Other jurisdictions follow a policy, meaning that when a vehicle is sold the seller removes the current plate from the vehicle. Buyers must either obtain new plates or attach plates they already hold, as well as register their vehicles under the buyers name, a person who sells a car and then purchases a new one can apply to have the old plates put onto the new car. One who sells a car and does not buy a new one may, depending on the laws involved, have to turn the old plates in or destroy them. Some jurisdictions permit the registration of the vehicle with personal plates, in some jurisdictions, plates require periodic replacement, often associated with a design change of the plate itself. Vehicle owners may or may not have the option to keep their original plate number, alternately, or additionally, vehicle owners have to replace a small decal on the plate or use a decal on the windshield to indicate the expiration date of the vehicle registration. Plates are usually fixed directly to a vehicle or to a frame that is fixed to the vehicle. Sometimes, the plate frames contain advertisements inserted by the service centre or the dealership from which the vehicle was purchased. Vehicle owners can also purchase customized frames to replace the original frames, in some jurisdictions licence plate frames are illegal

11.
Lok Sabha
–
The Lok Sabha is the Lower house of Indias bicameral Parliament, with the Upper house being the Rajya Sabha. The house meets in the Lok Sabha Chambers of the Sansad Bhavan in New Delhi, under the current laws, the strength of Lok Sabha is 545, including the two seats reserved for members of the Anglo-Indian community. The total elective membership is distributed among the states in proportion to their population, a total of 131 seats are reserved for representatives of Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes. The quorum for the House is 10% of the total membership, term of the House The Lok Sabha, unless sooner dissolved, continues to operate for five years from the date appointed for its first meeting and the expiration of the period of five years. An exercise to redraw Lok Sabha constituencies boundaries has been carried out by the Delimitation Commission based on the Indian census of 2001, the 16th Lok Sabha was elected in May 2014 and is the latest to date. The Lok Sabha has its own channel, Lok Sabha TV. A major portion of the Indian subcontinent was under British rule from 1858 to 1947, the Indian Councils Act 1861 provided for a Legislative Council consisting of the members of the Executive Council and non-official members. The Indian Councils Act 1892 established legislatures in each of the provinces of British India, although these Acts increased the representation of Indians in the government, their power still remained limited, and the electorate very small. The Indian Councils Act 1909 and the Government of India Act 1919 further expanded the participation of Indians in the administration, the Constituent Assembly was divided into two for the separate nations, with each new Assembly having sovereign powers transferred to it for the respective dominion. The Constitution of India was adopted on 26 November 1949 and came into effect on 26 January 1950, proclaiming India to be a sovereign, democratic republic. This contained the principles of the law of the land which would govern India in its new form. The Lok Sabha was duly constituted for the first time on 17 April 1952 after the first General Elections held from 25 October 1951 to 21 February 1952 and he / She should not be less than 25 years of age. He / She possesses such other qualifications as may be prescribed in that behalf by or under any law made by Parliament, a seat in the Lok Sabha will become vacant in the following circumstances, When the holder of the seat, by writing to the speaker, resigns. When the holder of the seat is absent from 60 consecutive days of proceedings of the House, when the holder of the seat is subject to any disqualifications mentioned in the Constitution or any law enacted by Parliament. A seat may also be vacated when the holder stands disqualified under the Anti-Defection Law, a member both of Parliament and of a House of the Legislature of a State. System of elections in Lok Sabha Members of the Lok Sabha are directly elected by the people of India, for the purpose of holding direct elections to Lok Sabha, each state is divided into territorial constituencies. This provision does not apply for states having a population of less than 6 million, note, The expression population here refers to the population ascertained at the preceding census of which relevant figure have been published. Lok Sabha has certain powers that make it more powerful than the Rajya Sabha, motions of no confidence against the government can be introduced and passed in the Lok Sabha

12.
Vidhan Sabha
–
The Vidhan Sabha or the Legislative Assembly is the lower house or the sole house of the state legislature in the different States of India. The same name is used for the lower house of the legislatures for two of the Union Territories, Delhi and Puducherry. The upper house in the seven states with a legislature is called the Legislative Council. Members of a Vidhan Sabha are direct representatives of the people of the state as they are directly elected by an electorate consisting of all citizens above the age of 18 of that state. Its maximum size as outlined in the Constitution of India is not more than 500 members and not less than 60 members. However, the size of the Vidhan Sabha can be less than 59 members through an Act of Parliament, such is the case in the states of Goa, Sikkim, Mizoram and the Union Territory of Puducherry. In some states Governor may appoint 1 member to represent minorities, e. g. the Anglo-Indian community, if he finds that minority inadequately represented in the House. Those elected or nominated to Vidhan Sabha are referred to as Members of Legislative Assembly or MLAsEach Vidhan Sabha assembles for a five-year term, during a State of Emergency, its term may be extended past five years or it may be dissolved. The term of the Legislative Assembly is five years, but it may be dissolved even earlier than five years by the Governor on the request of the Chief Minister. The term of a Legislative Assembly may be extended during an Emergency, a Vidhan Sabha can also be dissolved if a motion of no confidence is passed within it against the majority party or coalition. To become a member of a Vidhan Sabha, a person must be a citizen of India and he or she should be mentally sound and should not be bankrupt. He or she should also state an affidavit that there are no criminal procedures against him or her, Speaker of Vidhan Sabha who is responsible for the conduct of business of the body, and also a Deputy Speaker to preside during the Speakers absence. The Speaker acts as a judge and manages all debates. A motion of no confidence against the government in the state can only be introduced in the Vidhan Sabha, if it is passed by a majority vote, then the Chief Minister and his Council of Ministers must collectively resign. A money bill can only be introduced in Vidhan Sabha, in bicameral jurisdictions, after it is passed in the Vidhan Sabha, it is sent to the Vidhan Parishad, where it can be kept for a maximum time of 14 days. Unless by the Finance Minister of the state in the name of the Governor of that state, in matters related to ordinary bills, the will of Legislative Assembly prevails and there is no provision of joint sitting. In such cases, Legislative council can delay the legislation by maximum 4 months

13.
Alluvium
–
Alluvium is loose, unconsolidated soil or sediments, which has been eroded, reshaped by water in some form, and redeposited in a non-marine setting. Alluvium is typically made up of a variety of materials, including fine particles of silt and clay and larger particles of sand, when this loose alluvial material is deposited or cemented into a lithological unit, or lithified, it is called an alluvial deposit. The term alluvium is not typically used in situations where the formation of the sediment can clearly be attributed to another process that is well described. This includes, lake sediments, river sediments, or glacially-derived sediments, sediments that are formed or deposited in a perennial stream or river are typically not referred to as alluvial. Most alluvium is very young, and is often referred to as cover because these sediments obscure the underlying bedrock. Most sedimentary material that fills a basin that is not lithified is typically lumped together as alluvial, alluvium of Pliocene age occurs, for example, in parts of Idaho. Alluvium of late Miocene age occurs, for example, in the valley of the San Joaquin River, alluvium can contain valuable ores such as gold and platinum and a wide variety of gemstones. Such a concentration of ores is termed a placer deposit

14.
Mundeswari River
–
Mundeswari river is a small river in West Bengal which causes floods in Hooghly, Purba Medinipur and Howrah districts during the monsoons. Any discharge above 2,000 cubic metres per second downstream of Durgapur Barrage may cause flooding depending on the condition of the Mundeswari at Harinkhola. It has been suggested that the banks of such as Mundeswari should be protected with embankments to prevent floods. The river is not mentioned in the 1910 district gazetteers, during the devastating floods of 1914, the Damodar River split in two. One part joined the Mundeswari and the channel of water of the Damodar now flows into the Mundeswari. It originates as a canal from Srirampur, a village in Madabdihi at the station in Raina II block of the Bardhaman district. It flows past Kaiti Chakbhura and enters the Hooghly District and it ultimately flows into the Rupnarayan River

15.
Damodar River
–
Damodar River is a river flowing across the Indian states of West Bengal and Jharkhand. Rich in mineral resources, the valley is home to large-scale mining, earlier known as the Sorrow of Bengal because of its ravaging floods in the plains of West Bengal, the Damodar and its tributaries have been somewhat tamed with the construction of several dams. It is the most polluted river of India, means rope around the belly, derived from Sanskrit दाम rope and उदर belly. This is another name of the Hindu god Krishna, given to him because his foster-mother tied him to a large urn and it has a number of tributaries and subtributaries, such as Barakar, Konar, Bokaro, Haharo, Jamunia, Ghari, Guaia, Khadia and Bhera. The Barakar is the most important tributary of the Damodar and it originates near Padma in Hazaribagh district and flows through Jharkhand before meeting the Damodar near Dishergarh in West Bengal. The Damodar and the Barakar trifurcates the Chota Nagpur plateau, the rivers pass through hilly areas with great force, sweeping away whatever lies in their path. Two bridges on the Grand Trunk Road near Barhi in Hazaribagh district were torn down by the Barakar, the stone bridge in 1913. The Chota Nagpur Plateau receives an annual rainfall of around 1,400 mm. The huge volume of water flows down the Damodar and its tributaries during the monsoons used to be a fury in the upper reaches of the valley. In the lower valley it used to overflow its banks and flood large areas, Damodar River was earlier known as the River of Sorrows as it used to flood many areas of Bardhaman, Hooghly, Howrah and Medinipur districts. Even now the floods sometimes affect the lower Damodar Valley, the floods were virtually an annual ritual. In some years the damage was probably more, many of the great floods of the Damodar are recorded in history —1770,1855,1866, 1873–74, 1875–76, 1884–85, 1891–92,1897,1900,1907,1913,1927,1930,1935 and 1943. In four of these floods most of Bardhaman town was flooded, however, these ran into dispute and in 1866 and 1873, The Bengal Embankment Act was passed, transferring the powers to build and maintain embankment to the government. So great was the devastation every year that the floods passed into folklore, as the following Bhadu song testifies, floods have swollen the Damodar The sailing boats cannot sail. We fall at your feet Reduce the floods a little, Bhadu will come a year later Let the boats sail on your surface. The Damodar valley is rich in coal and it is considered as the prime centre of coking coal in the country. Massive deposits are found in the central basin spreading over 2,883 square kilometres, the important coalfields in the basin are Jharia, Raniganj, West Bokaro, East Bokaro, Ramgarh, South Karanpura and North Karanpura. The Damodar Valley is one of the most industrialised parts of India, three integrated steel plants of Steel Authority of India Limited and other factories are in the valley

16.
Howrah district
–
Howrah district is a district of the West Bengal state in eastern India. It has thousands of years of heritage in the form of the great Bengali kingdom of Bhurshut. The district is named after its headquarters, the city of Howrah, the Howrah district lies between 22°48′ N and 22°12′ N latitudes and between 88°23′ E and 87°50′ E longitudes. The district is bounded by the Hooghly River and the North 24 Parganas and South 24 Parganas districts on the east, on the north by the Hooghly district, and on the south by Midnapore East district. Boundaries of the district are naturally determined by Rupnarayan River on west and south-west, on north side, the boundary is an artificial one except for Bally Canal on north-east and Damodar River on north-west. Annual normal rainfall is 1461 millimetre per year, annual maximum temperature varies between 32-39 °C, whereas minimum temperature varies between 8-10 °C. Howrah district has two subdivisions, Howrah Sadar and Uluberia, Howrah Sadar consists of Bally municipality and Howrah municipal corporation and five community development blocks, Bally–Jagacha, Domjur, Panchla, Sankrail and Jagatballavpur. Uluberia subdivision consists of Uluberia Municipality and nine CD blocks, Uluberia–I, Uluberia–II, Amta–I, Amta–II, Udaynarayanpur, Bagnan–I, Bagnan–II, Shyampur–I, Howrah district has 1 municipal corporation in Howrah,2 municipalities in Bally and Uluberia. Rest of the area under this district is divided in 14 community development blocks, each block consists of rural area divided into gram panchayats along with urban units like census towns. This district has 11 police stations,157 gram panchayats, and 50 census towns, khalisani in Uluberia - II block and Chak Srikrishna in Sankrail block were noted as urban outgrowths in census 2001. Jagatballavpur CD block consists of area with 14 gram panchayats and one census town. Uluberia, municipality Amta–I CD block consists of rural area only with 13 gram panchayats, Amta–II CD block consists of rural area only with 14 gram panchayats. Bagnan–I CD block consists of area with 10 gram panchayats. Bagnan–II CD block consists of area with 7 gram panchayats and one census town. Uluberia–I CD block consists of rural area only with 9 gram panchayats. The most important village is Bar-Mongrajpur under Hatgacha-1 G. P, shyampur-II CD block consists of rural area only with 8 gram panchayats. Udaynarayanpur CD block consists of rural area only with 11 gram panchayats, Sankrail and Uluberia North constituencies are reserved for Scheduled Castes candidates. Bally, Howrah North, Howrah Central, Howrah South, Shibpur, Domjur, Uluberia North, Uluberia South, Shyampur, Bagnan, Kalyanpur, Amta and Udaynarayanpur constituencies form the Uluberia. Along with five assembly constituencies from Hooghly district, Jagatballavpur and Panchla constituencies form the Serampore, Sankrail and Uluberia North constituencies will remain reserved for Scheduled Castes candidates

17.
Purba Medinipur district
–
Purba Medinipur district or East Midnapore district is an administrative unit in the Indian state of West Bengal. It is the southernmost district of Burdwan division – one of the three divisions of West Bengal. It was formed on 1 January 2002 after the Partition of Midnapore into Purba Medinipur and Paschim Medinipur which lies at the northern and western border of it. The state of Odisha is at the southwest border, the Bay of Bengal lies in the south, the Hooghly river and South 24 Parganas district to the east, Purba Medinipur is formed of the sub-divisions of Tamluk, Contai and Haldia of erstwhile Midnapore district. Another sub-division, Egra has been created out of the erstwhile Contai sub-division during the partition of Midnapore, in 2011, the state government has proposed to rename the district as Tamralipta district after the ancient port city of Tamralipta which used to lie near the modern district headquarters. Purba Medinipur saw many political movements during the British Raj, a parallel government named the Tamralipta Jatiya Sarkar was formed during the Quit India Movement in Tamluk. In 2007, Purba Medinipur witnessed the Nandigram violence, an incident of firing that killed 14 farmers. Tamralipta, the port in ancient India, is believed by scholars to have been around modern-day Tamluk and it was the main port used by Ashoka, the Mauryan emperor. With too much siltation the port lost its importance around 8th century A. D. Purba Medinipur district is part of the lower Indo-Gangetic Plain and Eastern coastal plains. Topographically, the district can be divided into two parts – almost entirely flat plains on the west, east and north, the plains on the south. The vast expanse of land is formed of alluvium and is composed of younger, the elevation of the district is within 10 metres above mean sea level. The district has a coastline of 65.5 km along its southern. Five coastal CD Blocks, namely, Khejuri II, Contai II, Contai I, Ramnagar I, tidal floods are quite regular in these five CD Blocks. Normally floods occur in 21 of the 25 CD Blocks in the district, the major rivers are Haldi, Rupnarayan, Rasulpur, Bagui and Keleghai, flowing in north to south or south-east direction. River water is an important source of irrigation, the district has a low 899 hectare forest cover, which is 0. 02% of its geographical area. Haldia subdivision consists of Haldia municipality and five community development blocks, Mahisadal, Nandigram–I, Nandigram–II, Sutahata, Egra subdivision consists of Egra municipality and six community development blocks, Bhagawanpur–I, Bhagawanpur–II, Egra–I, Egra–II, Pataspur–I and Pataspur–II. Contai subdivision consists of Contai municipality and seven community development blocks, Kanthi–I, Kanthi–II, Kanthi–III, Khejuri–I, Khejuri–II, Ramnagar–I, there are 21 police stations,25 development blocks,5 municipalities and 223 gram panchayats in this district. Other than in the municipality area, each subdivision contains community development blocks which in turn are divided into rural areas, in total there are 10 urban units, five municipalities and five census towns

18.
Chinsurah
–
Chinsurah is a city in the state of West Bengal, India. It lies on the Hooghly River,35 kilometres north of Kolkata and it is in the district of Hooghly and is home to the district headquarters. Chuchura houses the commissioner of the Burdwan Range and it forms a part of the Kolkata Metropolitan Development Authority region. The District Court building of Chinsurah is the longest building in West Bengal, Chinsurah is the home to the new state-of-the-art 1000 KW DrM transmitter of Prasar Bharti which enables Akashvaani Maitree to be broadcast across Bangladesh. This Special Bangla Service of All India Radio was launched in the wake of the Bangladesh Liberation Movement and played a key role during the war and it continued till April 2010, but was discontinued thereafter due to decommissioning of the Super Power Transmitter at Chinsurah. Chinsurah is also the home of the oldest Armenian church in India, Hooghly-Chuchura was a municipality formed by the merging of two towns, Hugli and Chinsura, in 1865. The names are spelled in other ways including Hooghly, Hugli, Hughli, Ugulim, Chinsura, Chunchura, Chuchro, the Grand Trunk Road passes through the town. Chuchura and Hugli are historic stations on the Howrah-Burdwan main line of the Eastern Railway, ferry services on the River Hugli serves as a link with the district of North 24 Parganas. Hooghly-Chuchura is at 22. 90°N88. 39°E﻿ /22.90,88.39 and this city is on the flood plain on the right bank of river Bhagirathi-Hooghly. The Portuguese founded the town of Ugulim, now Hooghly-Chuchura, in 1579, the city flourished as a trading port and some religious structures were built. One such structure is a dedicated to a charismatic statue of the Mother Mary brought by the Portuguese. In the 17th century, political disorder struck the city and the Mughal governor of Bengal expelled the Portuguese, the fleeing Portuguese lost the statue in the river, but local people later found it on the river bank. The arrested Portuguese were taken to Delhi where a sentence of trampling by elephants was decreed. When the emperor Shah Jahan heard this he ordered the priests released and granted a piece of land on the bank of the river Hoogly where the statue of the Mother Mary was reestablished, there the Portuguese constructed a church to house the statue, which still receives pilgrims today. The church was renovated in 1980s and has declared as a basilica by the authority of Rome. In 1656 the Dutch erected a factory on the site of the town, at that time Calcutta was the principal settlement in Dutch Bengal, being used as a base for the Dutch intra-Asian opium trade. In 1759 the garrison of Chinsurah, on its march to Chandernagore, the Battle of Chinsurah lasted less than half an hour and ended with the rout of the Dutch attackers. In 1795, during the Napoleonic wars, a British garrison occupied the settlement, the peace of 1814 restored Hughli to the Dutch

19.
Panchayat Samiti (Block)
–
Mandals, taluka panchayats, block panchayats, or panchayat samiti are rural local governments at the intermediate level in panchayat raj institutions. The Panchayat Samiti is the link between the gram panchayat and the zila parishad and they name varies across states, e. g. Mandal Praja Parishad in Andhra Pradesh, Taluka Panchayat in Gujarat, and Mandal Panchayat in Karnataka. The samiti is elected for five years and is headed by a chairman, one Sarpanch Samiti supervises the other grampanchayats. It act as a co-ordinating body between Distric panchayat and Gram panchayat. A coterminous Mandal Parishad is constituted for each revenue Mandal, a Mandal Parishad is composed of, Mandal Parishad Territorial constituency members. Members of the Legislative Assembly having jurisdiction over the Mandal, members of the House of people having jurisdiction over the Mandal. Members of the council of States who are voters in the Mandal, one co-opted member, belonging to minorities. Mandal Parishad Territorial constituency members are elected by the voters, whereas. The members are elected for a term of five years, the election to MPTC s is done on a party basis. The elections are conducted by the State election commission, the Sarpanches are permanent invitees to the Mandal Parishad meetings. The most common found in a panchayat samiti are, Each department in a panchayat samiti has its own officer. Most often these are government employees acting as extension officers. A government-appointed block development officer is the supervisor of the officers and executive officer to the panchayat samiti and becomes, in effect. It also identifies and prioritises the issues. So that it should be needed to address at block level, for others, the traditional taxing function provides the bulk of revenues. Tax revenues are shared between the gram panchayats and the panchayat samiti

20.
Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes
–
The Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes are various officially designated groups of historically disadvantaged indigenous people in India. The terms are recognised in the Constitution of India and the groups are designated in one or other of the categories. During the period of British rule in the Indian subcontinent, they were known as the Depressed Classes, the percentage of people in scheduled castes is essentially the percentage of people in the lower part of Indian society. In modern literature, the Scheduled Castes are sometimes referred to as adi dravida or Dalits, the Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes comprise about 16.6 percent and 8.6 percent, respectively, of Indias population. The Constitution Order,1950 lists 1,108 castes across 29 states in its First Schedule, since independence, the Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes were given Reservation status, guaranteeing political representation. The Constitution lays down the principles of affirmative action for SCs. Since the 1850s these communities were loosely referred to as Depressed Classes, the early 20th century saw a flurry of activity in the Raj assessing the feasibility of responsible self-government for India. The Morley–Minto Reforms Report, Montagu–Chelmsford Reforms Report and the Simon Commission were several initiatives in this context, a highly contested issue in the proposed reforms was the reservation of seats for representation of the Depressed Classes in provincial and central legislatures. In 1935, Parliament passed the Government of India Act 1935, designed to give Indian provinces greater self-rule, the reservation of seats for the Depressed Classes was incorporated into the act, which came into force in 1937. This discretionary definition was clarified in The Government of India Order,1936, the complete list of castes and tribes was made via two orders, The Constitution Order,1950 and The Constitution Order,1950, respectively. According to the Constitution Orders Act,1990, Scheduled Castes can only belong to Hindu or Sikh or Buddhist religions, there is no religion bar in case of Scheduled Tribes. The Sachar Committee report of 2006 revealed that scheduled castes and tribes of India are not limited to the religion of Hinduism, a number of laws were enacted to implement the provisions in the Constitution. Affirmative action, Provide positive treatment in allotment of jobs and access to education as a means to accelerate the integration of the SCs. Affirmative action is known as reservation. Development, Provide resources and benefits to bridge the gap between the SCs and STs and other communities. Major part played by the Hidayatullah National Law University, the chairpersons of both commissions sit ex officio on the National Human Rights Commission. Seventeen regional offices of the Commissioner were established throughout the country, there was an initiative to replace the Commissioner with a committee in the 48th Amendment to the Constitution, changing Article 338. While the amendment was being debated, the Ministry of Welfare established the first committee for SCs and these functions were modified in September 1987 to include advising the government on broad policy issues and the development levels of SCs and STs

21.
Literacy
–
Literacy is traditionally understood as the ability to read, write, and use arithmetic. The concept of literacy is expanding in OECD countries to include skills to access knowledge through technology and ability to assess complex contexts. A person who travels and resides in a country but is unable to read or write in the language of the host country would also be regarded by the locals as being illiterate. The key to literacy is reading development, a progression of skills that begins with the ability to understand words and decode written words. The inability to do so is called illiteracy or analphabetism, Literacy involves a continuum of learning in enabling individuals to achieve their goals, to develop their knowledge and potential, and to participate fully in their community and wider society. Literacy is thought to have first emerged with the development of numeracy, script developed independently at least four times in human history in Mesopotamia, Egypt, lowland Mesoamerica, and China. The earliest forms of written communication originated in Sumer, located in southern Mesopotamia about 3500-3000 BCE, writing systems in Mesopotamia first emerged from a recording system in which people used impressed token markings to manage trade and agricultural production. The token system served as a precursor to early cuneiform writing once people began recording information on clay tablets, proto-cuneiform texts exhibit not only numerical signs, but also ideograms depicting objects being counted. Egyptian hieroglyphs emerged from 3300-3100 BCE and depicted royal iconography that emphasized power amongst other elites, the Egyptian hieroglyphic writing system was the first notation system to have phonetic values. Writing in lowland Mesoamerica was first put into practice by the Olmec and Zapotec civilizations in 900-400 BCE and these civilizations used glyphic writing and bar-and-dot numerical notation systems for purposes related to royal iconography and calendar systems. The earliest written notations in China date back to the Shang Dynasty in 1200 BCE and these systematic notations were found inscribed on bones and recorded sacrifices made, tributes received, and animals hunted, which were activities of the elite. These oracle-bone inscriptions were the ancestors of modern Chinese script and contained logosyllabic script. According to social anthropologist Jack Goody, there are two interpretations that regard the origin of the alphabet, many classical scholars, such as historian Ignace Gelb, credit the Ancient Greeks for creating the first alphabetic system that used distinctive signs for consonants and vowels. Thus, many argue that the ancient Semitic-speaking peoples of northern Canaan invented the consonantal alphabet as early as 1500 BCE. Much of this development is credited to English archeologist Flinders Petrie. Ten years later, English Egyptologist Alan Gardiner reasoned that these contain an alphabet. In 1948, William F. Albright deciphered the text using additional evidence that had been discovered subsequent to Goodys findings and this included a series of inscriptions from Ugarit, discovered in 1929 by French archaeologist Claude F. A. Schaeffer. Some of these inscriptions were mythological texts that consisted of a 32-letter cuneiform consonantal alphabet, another significant discovery was made in 1953 when three arrowheads were uncovered, each containing identical Canaanite inscriptions from twelfth century BCE